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Tuesday, 1 March 2016

Drug treatment for melanoma in New Zealand

The treatment of melanoma in New Zealand - along with Australia the melanoma capital of the world - is a disgrace.There has been discussion about the government Pharmac funding a drug that has been proven successful but unavailable in this country unless you are rich enough to be able to und your own treatment.A petition is being delivered to parliament today.I have discussed my (and my partner Pam's) experience HERE.Here is an email I received on this.In
New Zealand one person dies every day from advanced melanoma

Dear
Robin,

I’m
45 years old and I have Stage IV Advanced Melanoma. This means the
melanoma has spread to other parts of my body including my organs. It
is very aggressive and chemotherapy and radiotherapy will not cure my
cancer.

The
public health systems in places like Australia, the UK, and Canada,
fund new cutting-edge, life-saving treatment for advanced melanoma.

But
here in New Zealand, Pharmac has said it cannot fund such drugs. They
simply don’t have enough money to fund new, breakthrough drugs,
because they haven’t seen a real increase in funding in the last
three years.

In
New Zealand, one person dies every day from advanced melanoma. Yet
the Government does not offer any significant treatment for those
with the diseчase.

Tomorrow,
I’ll be joining other advanced melanoma patients and their families
to deliver our huge petition to Parliament, demanding the government
fund a new drug - Keytruda - which is showing the best results ever
seen in treating advanced melanoma.

Annette
King, Labour’s Health Spokesperson, has agreed to meet us to hear
our stories. But so far, the National Health Minister, Jonathan
Coleman, has declined to meet us.

But
we still continue to hope he will change his mind.

If
you’re in Wellington tomorrow lunchtime, please come and join us to
deliver our petition. Please show support for those of us campaigning
on this issue. We’re meeting in front of the Seddon statue in front
of Parliament at 12.15pm. It would be great if you could be there.

Thanks
for your support so far – it means the world to us.

Yours
sincerely,

Kathryn
Williams

Patient
with Advanced Melanoma

PS.
The more people who sign the petition, the stronger our message to
Jonathan Coleman will be. If you haven’t signed the petition yet,
click here to add your name before we deliver it to Parliament
tomorrow.Here is some coverage from Radio New Zealand and John Campbell (on Checkpoint)

Melanoma
survivor calls for Pharmac to fund Keytruda

A
terminally ill cancer patient who paid for her own melanoma treatment
and survived is taking a petition to Parliament calling for drug
Keytruda to be funded.

Australia,
Canada and Britain subsidise pembrolizumab, known as Keytruda, which
can stall and shrink tumours in some patients.

However,
in New Zealand, Pharmac has given it a low priority, saying they are
waiting for the results of further studies of the drug's
effectiveness.

Leisa
Renwick will take a petition to Parliament today. Photo: RNZ
/ Checkpoint

Cancer
survivor Leisa Renwick will present the petition to Parliament today
calling for Keytruda to be made available to all New Zealanders who
need it.

Ms
Renwick had been told by doctors she would live for only a few weeks
but, after paying for her own treatment, which could cost over
$10,000 a month, she has survived.

She
had wanted to meet Health Minister Jonathan Coleman but said he had
refused, saying he was too busy.

The
petition was a last-ditch effort and people would die if they
couldn't get the drug, she said.

"There
is no other treatment. There is nothing else. By standing back like
Pontius Pilate, and washing his hands of the affair, he's condemning
people to die and to die fast. If he doesn't do something, the people
who are coming to see him in Wellington will die."

Dr
Coleman told Morning Report that Pharmac made its
funding decisions independent of government - and this would have
been a difficult decision to make.

"It's
really difficult. The issue is, there's $800 million in the Pharmac
budget and Pharmac has to make decisions on the drugs that will
benefit the greatest number of New Zealanders, so it's making
priorities. There's other drugs, it's trade-offs within that budget.

"But
what I can say is we're having obviously the government's budget on
May 28th and that budget always gets more money for health, and I
will be making the case to increase Pharmac's budget."

"Originally
and usually, these things are presented to the local MP but I'm going
to go down there and see them."

Labour
leader Andrew Little said the government should override Pharmac's
decision and make Keytruda available to all New Zealanders, as there
were no alternatives to it and melanoma was a common cancer in New
Zealand.

Pharmac
underspent its budget by $30m last year and money should be put up to
fund the drug now, he said.

"Let's
have a fund that can take new drugs, like this, newly available,
funded for a period of say two years so that we can continue to get
the clinical data and the field data, but knowing that because other
countries are using it that it is effective."

"As
the PM has said and I have said, look, actually, on reflection that
was not the right thing to do ... We've got to let Pharmac make these
decisions without political interference and we wouldn't be doing
that again in the way we did with Herceptin."

PM:
'Not going to rule it out'

Prime
Minister John Key said, at the moment, the decision on whether to
fund Keytruda was in Pharmac's hands.

There
had always been debate over what the drug buying agency should spend
its money on, he said.

"We're
also going through the budget process now as you'd expect and so
there's obviously a high expectation that there'll be more money for
health and potentially therefore more money for Pharma.

"So
I'm not going to rule out that it gets funded in the future [but] at
the moment, that's in the hands of Pharma."

Mr
Key said the pharmaceutical industry created new drugs all the time,
and not all of them were successful.